Pressed pigments

Problem with pressing - I have pans, I have pigments - but not enough palettes! So I turned one old CD case into a palette: it's flimsy and will scratch terribly but until I get decent ones it'll have to do. You will not believe the trouble I had finding adhesive magnets for this thingy! I had to get it from Helsinki, a craft shop from Jumbo. One small A6 sheet cost me close to 4 euros.

Anyway, here's the pretty (it'll get bigger once you click on it):

Left to right: 1st row: Sparkling Violet (C), Apple Green Pop!, Pure Purple, Fine White
2nd row: Black Amethyst, Indian Blue, Hot Mama, Angel Wings
3rd row: Blackstar Red, Patagonian Purple, Grape Parfait, Apricot
4th row: Blackest Black Matte Tone, Blackstar Blue, Mauve Satin (C), Merlot Gold (C)
*C means The Conservatorie, rest are TKB Trading's pigments

I've made the majority of them for someone else, six in the lower left corner are my own. I'm still puzzled by the pressed pigments - I put the exact same amount (volume) of pigments in each, mixed it with press base and pressed - and the pans are filled differently. Hot Mama (you'll recognize it from the pic, I'm sure) shrank the most while Fine White filled the pan abundantly.

artificial light, featuring some different colors 

CD kaantest saab paleti teha küll aga see on üks nõrk ja väsind asi, või vähemalt saab seda paari kuu pärast olema : plastik kriipub ära ning läheb koledaks, samuti kipuvad need kaant kinni hoidvad nagad murduma. Aga hädaabinõuna käib kah. 
Lauvärvide pressimine ise on kaunis räpane töö - laud pulbriga kaetud, segamiseks kasutatud tikud ja lusikad kördiga koos - mida oksiidirikkamad pigmendid, seda jubedam. Ja seekord pressisin veel neist kõige hirmsamat - puhast musta raudoksiidi tsipakese ultramariinsinisega. Seda on nahaltki raske kätte saada, ka lauvärvina kasutamisel oleks parem, kui meigialuskreemid jms kenasti krundiks oleksid. 

First custom made palette

Friend of a friend ordered this set of 9 colors. I hope she'll like it, took me 3,5 hours to press the set. I should try to get some nice patterned ribbon or something to make them look more professional. One pan contains a lot of pigment, I was surprised at the amount I was able to squeeze into them.

Price for the full palette is 415 to 450 kr (ca 27-29 EUR) depending on the "difficulty" of a pigment. Some of these buggers are a tad difficult to press. 35 kr per color and the palette itself cost me almost 100 kr with all the duties and taxes... 

(artificial light)

Finding the MACRO button makes all the difference... Palette on these pics is the small cardboard Freestyle palette from TKB Trading, $4.5 a piece, fits 9 pans (26mm).

(daylight)

Pressing

Pressing pigments is fun. Loads of fun! I've been doing it last week, 4-6 colors at a time, too tired to make the entire batch at once. After all I have over 100 pigments to press - I do not even have enough pans for them all. And the palette can comfortably fit only 28 of them. It looks so neat with the partition, I do not have the heart to pull it out - without it the palette could fit 40 colors.

Pressing is easy, most pigments do your bidding without any fuss. Just remember to go easy on the pressing medium! Less is more... because more will just end up as oily goo.

Stuff you need for pressing:

• pigments
• pans
• pressing tile or suitable coin
• pressing medium
• hairpin or toothpick
• pipet 
• syringe
• high % alcochol
• kitchen paper
• if have weak hands, a pressing tool
• rubber gloves (it's a messy job)
• eventually: a palette would also be nice.

Lift some pigment onto the pan, drop 1-2 drops of pressing binder (I use TKB Trading's MyMix Clear Pressing Medium and a pipet) in the pan (get the pans with a pressing tile or two, do not bother with the press packs, those special handles are not comfortable), sprinkle some alcohol (80% vodka from a syringe, anyone?) until the pigment is wet (more wet then  the "liquid sand" consistency, make it into nice goo - easier to mix this way). Place kitchen paper over the pan, place the pressing tile nicely on top and press down. Excess liquid will be immediately sucked out by the paper tissue, repeat pressing with a fresh dry tissue and lay the fresh eyeshadow out to dry for 12-24 hrs. Done.

Now, the unpressable baddies are the sparkly colors. 24K Gold is unpressable, needs some mixing medium in a powder form too, liquid mixing medium alone will not work. All you are left with is some very greasy looking glitter... Other colors behaving this way are Storm and Limerick.

For some reason I cannot comprehend, WinterRose and Brown Coco are also acting up and seem to have difficulties staying pressed... as soon as I touch the pigment with my brush it tries to leave the pan, all of it. It just crumbles out of the pan. Blackest Black matte tone also dried up in a funny way, showing little cracks on the surface. Metallics on the other hand press like a dream... So do the MyMix colors I recently acquired. 

MyMix Clear Pressing Medium is mostly silicones, not good  for some people. You do not have to use it, it's also possible to use fractionated coconut oil or jojoba oil  or some other oil for pressing but the downside is - those might go rancid in a year or so, jojoba a little sooner... Solution would be adding a small amount of preservatives but then what's the point of the entire DIY business? Same stuff is available in any store, already pressed and nicely packaged.

PS! The Irish Eyes Collection had two colors that bled whilst pressing (colorant dissolved in alcohol): Dublin and Lucky Green. They bled blue. Next to them is the unpressable glimmering Limerick.

Guilty pleasures... shopping

Am quite serious about my own little pigment pressing project and started collecting the necessities. The 28 slot magnetic palette from StarsMakeupHaven arrived today and I had a warm fuzzy feeling imagining all my 120+ piggies nicely pressed, labelled and color coordinated. Since there's just this one palette, it will only be housed by a select few (28). I think there will be a riot in my makeup-drawer...

Shipping was amazingly fast, shipped on August 17th and arrived on August 23rd, communication was excellent. Item was in superb condition and the only thing I did not like was the strange chemical smell. Understandable - it's plastic and plastic usually stinks. The lid is matte and my greasy fingerprints are all plain to see. It is quite thin and looks sleek and elegant, with my soft fingernails I found it a little bit difficult to open. I believe I will be getting more of these some time in the future, it would significantly decrease the amount of space needed to stash all my piggies. I just wish they'd be more affordable. :S

Quite a lot of bloggers refer to SMH eyeshadows as "poor man's MAC". Colors already in the palette were the little extras provided by SMH: red is Light My Fire and green goes by the name Call A Treuse. I reckon I won't be swatching these, since I'm pretty sure I already have similar colors in my collection, anyone craving to see the swatches can look at them here. Maybe I can find better homes for these, I feel more comfortable wearing taupes. SMH makeup is ordinary makeup and not pure MMU, containing methylparaben and alum lakes. Ingredients can be seen here (on the other side of the plastic wrappings they come in):

Little 26 mm round pans I got earlier from TKB all fit in the slots and are magnetized as well. All I need now is the TKB Trading's pressing binder... Or if I can get my hands on some pure alcochol I can try pressing with the jojoba oil I already have (this goes rancid pretty quickly though, fractionated coconut oil is said to be better for pressing). I have to tell you one bad thing about TKB... they never stop. Somehow they manage to add just the things I like and want (and let's be frank - do not need) to their shop's inventory. Overall I think this is just mean...

Saabus mu palett - näeb imekena välja, must ja elegantselt õhuke, A5 formaat. Haiseb veidi, peab tuulutama. Kahju vaid et nad nii kallid on... oleks kohe 4 võtnud. Ühe hind koos saatmiskuludega tuli kakskümmend neli ameerikamaa tugrikut. Kui odavamaks lähevad, hangin juurde. Tõenäoliselt on aasta pärast neid eBayst ka odavamalt saada, siis saab mõelda ka ülejäänud kollektsiooni pressimisele, hetkel on prioriteet pigem neutraalsetel pruunidel toonidel. Ma nüüd põen veidi seda roppu raharaiskamist...

Pigmentide pressimine ja saadaolevad paletid

Ma tahan osta palette ja proovida ise pressimist, et oma meigilasu vähem "plahvatusohtlikuks" muuta. Pidev topside kinni-lahti keeramine on närvesööv. Siin oleks see valik, mis eBayst ja mujalt silma jäänud (Z-palette ja tema TKB analoogi jätsin hetkel valikust välja, need on papist).

Olen otsustanud, et mind huvitavad suured, 28-kohalised paletid 26 mm pannidega (vist suurimad, mis saadaval). eBay on täis selliseid (odavaim pakkumine 4 USD tk+7USD shipping):

Kahjuks nii suuri magnetiseeritult saada pole: StarsMakeupHaven müüb magnetiseeritud 28-kohalisi palette vaid koos lauvärvidega (vt see stiilne iludus siin allpool):

(muide, neid palette seal siiski müüakse 15 USD tükk (+8 USD shipping)- lihtsalt et kodulehe värvivalik nii perversne, et helesinine "next" ei ole mu kuvaril kuigi hästi nähtav)

Väiksemaid 12-kohalisi Coastal Scentsi magnetiseeritud palette pole jälle mõtet vaadata - liiga väikesed, kõik mu rohelised, rääkimata juba kuldsetest-pruunidest ei mahuks ühte paletti äragi...

Veel on selliseid, ilma pannideta Sleek Chic palette (eBays ca 2 USD millele lisandub shipping 10USD), kuhu sisse käib 2 kihis kokku 20 panni (aga ma ei loe müüja kodulehelt välja, kas 36 mm või 26 mm läbimõõduga pannid - TKBst tellisin nimelt 26 mm panne):

Mille kasuks küll otsustada? Mulle endale tundub, et käiku lähevad need odavaimad 4-dollarilised... veidi kummiliimi ja käravad küll.

I want to get some palettes to press my eyeshadow pigments in but cannot choose. My ideal one would be a magnetized 28 piece one from StarsMakeupHaven but those are not sold as empty palettes (note actually they are sold there, 15 bucks per piece, its just that the "next" does not show up on my screen cause of being light blue - but sooo expensive!). 12 slots is not enough - I'd like to get all the colors of one color group into one palette...

Eriliselt odav variant oleks E.L.F.i custom compact: mahutab 4 värvi ning maksab dollari (tühjalt)... Väike iseenesest aga reisile minnes ning meigikotis kaasaskandmiseks täiesti piisav. Probleem on kättesaadavuses :D.